Chief Strategy Officer

As Cisco’s Chief Strategy Officer, Hilton Romanski is responsible for shaping corporate strategy to enable Cisco to anticipate and to lead major market transitions. In this role, Hilton also oversees strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, the integration of new business models, the fostering of disruptive innovations, and the cultivation of world-class talent. A veteran of Cisco’s Corporate Development organization, Hilton has been responsible for nearly $20 billion in acquisitions across 40 deals, engineered Cisco’s 2013 divestiture of the Linksys home networking business, and was the driving force behind many of the innovative financial structures now represented in Cisco’s portfolio.

Hilton earned his M.B.A. from Stanford University and his B.A. from Columbia University.

Head of Corporate Development and Cisco Investments

Rob leads the Corporate Development team at Cisco and is responsible for driving Cisco’s M&A and Corporate Venture Capital activity.  A veteran of Cisco’s Corporate Development organization, Rob has executed dozens of acquisitions and investments, constructed its major spin-ins such as Nuova and Insieme and helped launch new innovation projects within Cisco.

Rob earned his B.A. in Economics from Stanford University.

Senior Domain Leader: Data Center and Storage
Senior Geo Leader: Greater China

Janey Hoe is a Vice President of Cisco Investments.  Previously, she held multiple product management, technical marketing, and business development leadership roles at Cisco, operating multi-billion dollar product lines as well as pioneering new products in switching, security, data center, and video collaboration. Along with her team, she was recognized as a finalist for the Pioneer Award, the highest honor for innovation at Cisco. Prior to Cisco, Janey was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. Before McKinsey, Janey worked on network protocol research with MIT LCS Laboratory, AT&T Laboratories, and HP Laboratories. Her work on TCP/IP performance improvements has been widely implemented and referenced.

Janey holds a BS and MS in electrical engineering and computer sciences from U.C. Berkeley and MIT respectively.

Senior Domain Leader: Security, Service Provider, Services, Silicon
Senior Geo Leader: Canada and APJ

Derek and his team are currently responsible for driving Cisco’s strategy, acquisitions, and investments across its Security, Service Provider and related Services businesses. Derek is also responsible for Cisco’s corporate development activities in Canada, India, Japan, Korea, ASEAN and ANZ.  Prior to joining Cisco, Derek was Managing Director of Venture Investment for ITOCHU Technology, the Silicon Valley-based technology venture capital investment and business development arm of ITOCHU Corporation.  Before ITOCHU, Derek was Vice President of Corporate Development at Overture Services, the pioneer of commercial search services on the Internet, acquired by Yahoo! in 2003.

Derek received a BS in Finance and Marketing from U.C. Berkeley and an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA where he was a venture fellow.

Matt rejoined Cisco in 2016 after several years at Comcast Ventures where he led investments in a number of sectors including data center, cloud, big data, devops, machine learning and AI.  Matt leads investment and acquisition efforts for Cisco’s portfolio surrounding Internet of Things, collaboration, and enterprise networking as well as our activity in Israel.  In his earlier career in Cisco Corporate Development, Matt was responsible for a number of acquisitions and investments primarily in the data center, storage and virtual infrastructure domains.  Examples include Insieme, Virident and Desktone.  Prior to Cisco he was at TeleSoft Partners where he invested in infrastructure companies such as Matrix Semiconductor, Jungo Software and Validity Sensors.  Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, he was an early employee at Terayon, a Sequoia Capital-backed startup that went public, where he initially architected and designed ASICs for Terayon’s cable modem systems before moving into product marketing and product management.

Matt received his B.S., Summa Cum Laude, and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University.

Senior Domain Leader: Cloud, Big Data and Analytics
Senior Geo Leader: EMEAR

Phil Kirk joined Cisco in 2007 and is currently responsible for all acquisitions and investments related to Big Data as well as Cloud software and management. Before joining Cisco, Phil was with the Microsoft Corporate Strategy team.  Previously, he was an associate with DTEC Venture Capital, where sourced and executed early stage investments in the software and networking market.  Earlier, he spent time as a strategy consultant, focusing on clients in the internet and e-commerce space.

Phil earned his MBA degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an AB degree with honors in Economics from the University of Chicago.

As Head of Cisco Investments and M&A for Asia Pacific and Japan, Rajiv leads an experienced team of Venture Investment and M&A professionals. This team has an active portfolio of investments ranging from start-ups in IOT, customer experience management, connected mobility, location analytics, smart city applications,  V2V/V2X amongst many others as well as significant joint venture partnerships. Rajiv and his team also manage LP positions in Australia, India, Japan, Korea and Singapore.

Prior to his current role, Rajiv served as the Managing Director for Cisco Capital Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China. In all, Mr. Menon has 22 years of experience in venture investing, corporate and venture lending, credit underwriting, money market trading, factoring and wealth management. Prior to joining Cisco, he co-founded Captive Finance Corporation, a technology financing company, and served as Vice President for Asia.

Originally from New Delhi, he began his corporate finance career with the $100+ billion Tata Group after receiving his Masters in Finance from the University of Delhi. Mr. Menon now resides in Singapore with his family and is an avid Polo player.

Head of Cisco Investments Portfolio Development

Hitesh leads the Cisco Investments Portfolio Development team whose primary goal is to deliver differentiated value to the portfolio companies by leveraging Cisco’s business enablement infrastructure. This includes participation in channel partner programs as well as showcases at major Cisco events, such as Cisco Live! and Cisco Partner Summit.  Hitesh also has responsibility for other functions supporting portfolio development including marketing and relationships with VCs, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders, both within Cisco and across the industry. Hitesh is a Cisco veteran and joined Cisco Investments from Cisco’s Software Sales group where he was responsible for Global Software business development.  Hitesh was previously the acting GM of Cisco’s $1B+ Collaboration product line and, prior to that, held leadership roles in sales with focus on security, data center, and collaboration in verticals such as financials, healthcare, technology, and retail.

Hitesh holds an MBA degree from Santa Clara University, an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas, and a BS in Electronics and Telecommunications from the University of Mumbai.

John Brilliant leads the strategy development and execution for all investments and acquisitions related to Cisco’s Enterprise Networking and Wireless portfolios. In this capacity, he brings nearly twenty years of strategy and transaction experience as an investor, operator, and investment banker.

John joined Cisco in 2017, from PwC Corporate Finance (broker-dealer subsidiary of PwC LLP) where he was part of the founding leadership that re-launched the investment banking franchise for that firm with joint responsibility for team leadership and client origination. Prior to PwC, John was part of the senior leadership for Barclays (via the acquisition of Lehman Brothers) Global Technology Investment Banking practice where he originated and executed more than 75 financing and M&A transactions accounting for approximately $100B in aggregate transaction value for leading technology clients. Earlier in his career, John was a consultant with Andersen Consulting where he focused on advising late-stage private companies on growth strategies.

John earned an MBA in Strategic Management & Finance from The University of Chicago GSB and a BScE in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Classical Civilization from The University of Michigan.

Domain Leader: Internet of Things

Amit Chaturvedy joined Cisco in 2014 and leads the global investment practice for Internet of Things (IoT). Prior to Cisco, Amit was at Summit Partners where he sourced and led investments in communications technology, financial services and consumer sectors in US, Europe and India. Previously, he was at Cummins Inc. where he designed software for diesel engines and led customer liaison activities for Daimler Chrysler Corporation. Amit also worked in the investment banking group at Citigroup, NY.

Amit received mechanical engineering degrees from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Bombay and Purdue University – West Lafayette and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

In Tod’s current role he concerns himself with Lifecycle Management of Cisco’s equity investment portfolio and continuing to be a liaison between the portfolio companies and Cisco, providing advisory services tailored to the needs and developmental stage of each company. Prior to that, Tod led an investment and acquisition team responsible for multiple investments and acquisitions covering the areas of Security, Optics, Switching, Routing, and Network Management.

Tod joined Cisco in 1995 after serving in various engineering roles in the areas of optics, video, and telecommunications systems in support of NASA and the Space Shuttle program.

Tod holds a BSEE from Memphis State University with a specialization in Optics and holds four patents in the area of telecommunications systems.

Geo Leader:  Israel and Latin America

Daniel Karp joined Cisco Business Development in 2013 and is currently focused on investment and acquisition opportunities in Israel and Latin America.  Before coming to Cisco, Daniel Karp was a Senior Strategy Manager at Microsoft, where he was responsible for the strategy of Microsoft’s Startup Business Group (Microsoft’s internal Incubation projects arm), and Microsoft Research, focusing on areas such as NUI, Communications and Collaboration, Robotics, 3D Printing and Machine Learning. Prior to that, Daniel worked as a Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft’s Windows Azure (Public Cloud). Before Microsoft, Daniel worked as a Venture Capital Associate at Amiti Capital and held various engineering roles at Comsys Communications (acquired by Intel) and Saifun Semiconductors (acquired by Spansion).

Daniel earned a BS in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, from Tel-Aviv University, an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, and is a graduate of an Elite Telecommunications Unit in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Jon Koplin joined Cisco Corporate Development in 2017 and leads the EMEAR team responsible for investments, joint ventures, and acquisitions.

Previous to Cisco, Jon worked as an early-stage technology investor with European family offices. Before moving into the investment arena, Jon held senior operating roles at Google and Samsung in Europe and Asia. Early in his career, Jon worked in Silicon Valley and in startups and was part of the management team of NetBeans (acquired by Sun Microsystems).

Jon earned a BS in Chemical Engineering and a MA in Classical Languages from Stanford University and an MBA from INSEAD.​

Geo Leader: Greater China

Tyson Li joined Cisco Corporate Development in 2008 and is part of the Greater China team responsible for investments, joint ventures and acquisitions. Previous to Cisco, Tyson was a Vice President at Investor Growth Capital Asia, a venture capital fund backed by Investor AB, where he invested in technology companies in the Asia Pacific region. Before moving into the investment arena, Tyson was a veteran of both startups as well as MNCs in both Asia and North America.

Tyson holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and an engineering degree from Simon Fraser University.

Domain Leader: Silicon
Geo Leader: Canada

Kay Min joined the Cisco Corporate Development team in 2011 and is responsible for all of Cisco’s acquisitions and investments in routing, optical networking, and photonics markets which continue to display dramatic increases in speed and component integration. Kay also has the geographic responsibility for Canada.  Her extensive experience in roles of increasing responsibility in the product development and product management sides of optical networking includes both large companies (Pirelli and Lucent) as well as startups, Photuris (founding team member) and Mahi.  A transition into investment banking and venture capital investing further broadened her experience.

Kay earned an MBA degree from Georgetown University and a BS in Ceramic Engineering from Rutgers University.

Tina Nolte joined the Cisco Corporate Development team in 2017 and is responsible for Cisco’s investment and acquisition efforts in the Cloud space. She began her career as a consultant at McKinsey. After McKinsey she joined Cisco’s UCS Product Management team, leading their flagship management software efforts. Following Cisco, Tina has led product management at two cloud and data center infrastructure startups, Nebula and DriveScale, and led strategic initiatives in the Office of the CTO at Pure Storage.

Tina earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT and a BA in Mathematics and Computer Science from Cornell University.

Domain Leader: Data Center and Storage

Michael Porat joined the Cisco Corporate Development team in 2012 and is responsible for Cisco’s investment and acquisition efforts in the Data Center and Storage arenas. Prior to this, Michael led Cisco’s investment and acquisition activities in Mobile Wireless including acquisitions such as Intucell, Ubiquisys, and Broadhop. He began his career at Intel managing a global team re-engineering business processes. He then moved into an operational role as ECI Telecom’s Chief of Staff, where he was a key contributor in facilitating a leveraged buyout of the then public company. Before joining Cisco, Michael was a Principal at Genesis Partners, an Israel-based venture capital firm focused on early stage investments.

Michael earned a BA in Economics from Yale University.

Domain Leader: Service Provider and Core Services

Aleem Rizvon and his team are focused on developing inorganic growth strategies for the Service Provider sector and the Core Services market.  Aleem has a long record of helping Cisco enter new markets.  He led the formation of the Joint Venture with EMC and VMware to create VCE that helped Cisco enter the Converged Cloud Infrastructure market. He also led the investment in an early stage accelerator that allowed Cisco to participate in the Incubator market.  Earlier at Cisco, Aleem led Product Management teams in both the Enterprise and Service Provider Segments where his teams were instrumental in bringing to market WLAN, Advanced Mobility Services, Multi-Service Switches and VoIP Media Gateways that drove revenues in excess of $1B.

Prior to Cisco, Aleem lead product development organizations at NEC where he spent considerable amount of time in Japan, defining, developing and deploying Service Provider Core Network Products and Voice/Data Convergence Products.

Aleem holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Regional Engineering College in India and a Master’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from The University of Texas at Arlington.

Domain Leader: Security and Security Services

Karthik Subramanian joined Cisco Corporate Development in 2014 and is currently focused on finding investment and acquisition opportunities in the Security sector as well as related services.  Before coming to Cisco, Karthik founded a social recommendations start-up and was an investment banker at Barclays prior to that.

Karthik earned an MBA from Wharton and also holds an Engineering degree from IIT – Bombay.

Domain Leader: Collaboration

Donald Tucker leads Cisco’s acquisition and investment efforts related to the market for Collaboration products and services.  Donald joined Cisco from Oracle via the acquisition of Responsys, and prior to that spent time at Jefferies & Co., Liberty Mutual Investments and Chevron in a variety of finance, investment and research roles.

Donald holds an MBA from Wharton, and a bachelor of science in Business from Cal Poly.

Domain Leader: Big Data

Noah leads the development and execution of investment strategy for big data & analytics – covering technologies that compile, process, and produce insights from information. He offers close to two decades of experience building companies as a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and board member and has led investments in Mesosphere, Cyber-Ark, Qlik Technologies, CyOptics, Getaround and many others.

He joined Cisco in 2017 from Triangle Peak Partners. He was a venture capitalist at Israel-based JVP, and began his investment career at NY-based merchant bank Veronis Suhler Stevenson.

Noah earned his MBA from Stanford and his BA from Tufts, where he majored in Computer Science and in German Language & Literature.

Pratima Aiyagari joined Cisco Corporate Development in 2011 and is responsible for investments and acquisitions across all Cisco verticals within the EMEA region with a specific focus on Western and Northern Europe. In this role, she also serves as Cisco’s board observer on several portfolio companies. Prior to her current role, she has over a decade of experience in multiple roles as a Cisco engineer in the US (in the areas of network management, access routing and advanced services), sell-side equity research in Europe covering the TMT sector (at Société Générale) and corporate business development in a financial risk management start-up in London (at PensionsFirst).

Pratima received her MBA from INSEAD in France and an MS in Computer Science from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in the US. Pratima is a co-author of a US patent in the area of network device clusters and high availability.

Alan Chelko heads Cisco’s Corporate Development efforts in CEE, DACH and the Middle East.  In this role, he leads Cisco’s regional venture capital investment efforts and manages Cisco’s regional private investment portfolio of over $100M.  He has over 15 years’ experience in emerging markets building and growing high tech companies as both a manager and investor.

Alan has received a dual degree International MBA in 1996 from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona (USA) and Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona (USA).

Daniel Fischer joined Cisco’s Corporate Development team in 2015 and focuses on investments and acquisitions in Big Data, Analytics and Storage. Before joining Cisco, Daniel spent two years at Blackstone, where he worked on venture investments and corporate acquisitions. Previously, Daniel was an investment banking analyst in Citi’s Industrial group in New York.

Daniel graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Economics and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Tomer Goldberg joined the Cisco Corporate Development team in 2016 and is focused on the full range of strategic initiatives, including acquisitions and investments, that Cisco pursues in Israel. Prior to Cisco, Tomer was at Audible, an Amazon company, as a Senior Product Manager focused on web and mobile apps, and before that, Tomer was at Deloitte Consulting working with Technology, Media and Telecom clients. Tomer began his career in the Israeli Defense Forces’ UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) unit as a pilot and officer.

Tomer holds an MBA from Columbia University’s Business School and an LLB from the University of Haifa, Israel.

Gilbert Guan joined the Cisco Corporate Development team in 2017 and focuses on investments, joint ventures and acquisitions in the Greater China team. Prior to Cisco, Gilbert was at next47 (a Siemens venture firm) where he focused on additive manufacturing, robotics, connected mobility, AI and IoT.  Before next47, he worked at Xcelerate a private equity firm in Shanghai after having worked at Value Partners Management Consulting in Hong Kong covering the TMT and consumer sectors.  Gilbert began his career in engineering and product management with Ericsson, Wistron and Tangram (a Shanghai based startup).

Gilbert holds a MBA from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, a BS in computer networking from Fudan University and a mechanical and electrical engineering degree from the Shanghai Institute of Technology.

Ajay Khanna joined Cisco Corporate Development in 2008 and is currently focused on finding investment and acquisition opportunities in the Service Provider and related Services sectors, both in Silicon Valley and worldwide.  Prior to this, he spent six years in Bangalore where he was responsible for Cisco’s initiatives in services and solutions.  Most recently, Ajay drove Cisco’s efforts for global venture thematic investments across Connected Mobility, Internet of Things, Storage, and Analytics themes with a focus on Indian product ecosystem.  Before coming to Cisco, Ajay led the Technical Services Business unit at Aricent (formerly Hughes Software systems). He was also part of the founding team of three product entrepreneurial start-ups in India.

Ajay earned a Bachelors of Engineering (Electronics and Communications) from Delhi Institute of Technology, Delhi University.

Christiaan is a member of the Cisco Investments Portfolio Development team. He brings portfolio companies and Cisco’s business entities together to leverage the value and scale that only Cisco can bring to our investment portfolio.

Before joining Cisco Investments, Christiaan was part of Cisco’s Corporate Strategic Innovation Group, where he focused on various external innovation initiatives and worked across Cisco’s nine global innovation centers. Prior to Cisco, Christiaan worked in South Africa’s largest scientific research organization (the CSIR), where he ran initiatives in artificial intelligence, and helped establish South Africa’s research and education network (SANREN).

Christiaan holds an MBA from IMD Business School in Switzerland, and a BEng in Computer Engineering from the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

Mike Lim joined the Cisco Corporate Development team in 2017 and focuses on investments and acquisitions in the Data Center space.  Prior to joining Cisco, Mike was an investment banker at BMO Technology Investment Banking in San Francisco, where he focused on the Enterprise Software sector and led the coverage of Industrial Technology & Software vertical.  Prior to BMO, Mike worked at Deutsche Bank and ING Investment Banking in New York where he focused on M&A, debt and equity transactions in the technology sector.  Mike started his career at PWC Transaction Services where he focused on complex transaction accounting and M&A valuation.

Mike earned a BBA degree with a concentration in Finance and Accounting from Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor.

Vin Lingathoti joined Cisco Corporate Development in 2015 to focus on investments and acquisitions in Data Center and Storage, and to accelerate the Cisco Investments platform. Vin joined Cisco from SKTA Innopartners, an innovation accelerator, where he focused on seed-stage investments in Enterprise Storage, Data Center, and IoT. Prior to Innopartners, he was in the corporate development and strategy teams at EMC and SunGard. Earlier, Vin was a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group and has worked in the buyout team of an European Private Equity fund. He started his career as a software engineer and has held product management and operations roles at multiple startups.

Vin earned his MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and an MS in Computer Science from University of Potsdam in Germany.

Prasad Parthasarathi joined Cisco Corporate Development in 2015 to focus on acquisitions, investments and inorganic strategy in the Security space. Prior to Cisco, Prasad worked in HP’s Corporate Development group where he evaluated and led a variety of transactions including acquisitions, divestitures, IP licensing, joint ventures and equity investments across Security, Enterprise Software and IT Services. Prasad joined HP from EDS Corporate Development, where he executed acquisitions in the Consulting & Systems Integration space and was a key member of the deal team that advised the EDS leadership on its $14B sale to HP. Prior to HP / EDS, Prasad held positions in Business Strategy and Corporate Finance in Singapore and India.

Prasad earned an MBA in Finance from the Indian School of Business (ISB) and studied at the Duke University on a student exchange program. In addition, he holds an undergraduate degree in business.

Jack was an IoT project manager at China Mobile in Beijing and was a R&D manager of smart phones at Samsung Electronics in South Korea. He also co-founded a startup for mobile TV solution in Beijing before joining in Samsung, after three-year experience in software development at Sony Ericsson in Japan.

Jack holds an MBA degree from Yale School of Management and a Ph.D degree in communication systems from Tsinghua University.

Jack published one Chinese book FPGA/CDLD Advanced Application Development Guide in 2003. He speaks English, Chinese and Japanese and loves badminton and reading.

Ankur Saxena joined Cisco Corporate Development in 2016 and is currently focused on investment and acquisition opportunities in Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning. Prior to Cisco, Ankur worked in a variety of roles in venture capital, private equity and investment banking in Amazon’s Corporate Development team, The Carlyle Group, Helion Venture Partners and Avendus Capital in the US and India.

Ankur earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. He also holds a B. Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

Shiv Sharma joined Cisco Investments in 2017 and focuses on investment and acquisition opportunities in the Collaboration market. Before joining Cisco, Shiv interned at Fidelity International in London analyzing global internet equities and worked in Private Equity at Palisade Capital Management where he focused on various growth-oriented investments. Previously, Shiv was an Investment Banking Analyst in the Technology Group at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

Shiv earned an MBA from INSEAD, an MS Commerce from the University of Virginia, and a BA in Economics & Commerce from Hampden-Sydney College.

Geo Leader: Australia and New Zealand

Malcolm leads the development and execution of strategy for investments and acquisitions in Australia and New Zealand while supporting the broader APJ team across the region. Malcolm has extensive experience in the venture capital world both as investor and entrepreneur. He spent over a decade on the investment team at Starfish Ventures, one of Australia’s leading venture firms and had his first investment role with JAFCO Asia representing their investment activities in Australia. He also spent several years in the US with the start up Platypus Technology.

Malcolm earned a Masters of Applied Science from the Queensland University of Technology and an MBA from the University of Melbourne. Malcolm was also a Monbusho scholar in Japan.

Divya joined Cisco Investments in 2014 and focuses on investment and acquisition opportunities related to the Cloud market. She started her career in a technology role at Next Jump, an internet and e-commerce company. Following that, she was a management consultant at Opera Solutions. Most recently, Divya spent a summer as an Associate covering Technology at a global investment bank.

Divya received her Bachelor’s from Anna University, India and Master’s from Johns Hopkins University, both in Computer Science; and an MBA from Wharton.

Sarena Ahmad joined Cisco Corporate Development in 2017 to focus on investments and acquisitions in the Data Center and Storage space. Prior to Cisco, Sarena was at Faraday Future, an electric vehicle start-up based in Los Angeles. Previously, she was in the Industrials Group at Deutsche Bank in New York.

Sarena holds a B.A. from Wellesley College, where she studied Economics and Philosophy.

Karim Anchassi joined Cisco Investments in 2017 to focus on Big Data related investments and acquisitions. Before coming to Cisco, Karim was at Jefferies Technology Investment Banking Division in New York. At Jefferies, he has helped complete M&A, equity, and debt related transactions across various verticals.

Karim has graduated Magna Cum Laude from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University where he received a BS in Finance. He is fluent in English and Arabic and a member of Beta Gamma Sigma honors society.

Stephen Chou joined Cisco Investments in 2017 and focuses on investments and acquisitions in the Cloud space. Prior to Cisco, Stephen worked in investment banking at Credit Suisse in New York and Hong Kong, where he focused on equity offerings and M&A transactions in the technology sector.

Stephen earned a MS in Operations Research from Columbia University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of California, San Diego.

Ryan Petranovich joined Cisco Corporate Development in 2015 to focus on investments and acquisitions relating to Cisco’s portfolio of Collaboration products and initiatives. Prior to Cisco, Ryan was part of the strategy team at Medallia, a customer experience management firm with headquarters in Palo Alto, and before that gained experience on a quantitative strategy and valuation consulting team at Duff & Phelps.

Ryan received a BA in Mathematics and a BA in Finance from the University of Washington.

Nathan Reynolds joined Cisco in 2017 and focuses on acquisitions and investments in the Security space. Prior to joining Cisco, Nathan worked in Barclays’ Financial Institutions investment banking team, providing strategic advice, market insights, and transaction execution to clients across the FinTech and financial services industries.

Nathan graduated magna cum laude from Williams College, where he received a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Political Science.

Arnav joined Cisco Investments in 2017 and focuses on investment and acquisition opportunities in the IoT space. Before joining Cisco, Arnav worked at The Blackstone Group in New York. Arnav earned a BA in Economics at Cornell University, where he was a Tata Scholar.

Lou joined Cisco Investments in 2017 and focuses on investments and acquisitions relating to Cisco’s Service Provider, Core Services, and Silicon businesses.  Before joining Cisco, Lou co-founded EdFundr – a tech startup providing social fundraising solutions to colleges and universities.  Previously, Lou was an Analyst at PEI Funds in New York, where he evaluated private equity secondary investment opportunities.

Lou graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a B.A. in Economics.